"If you fail again, this would be the end for you. Do you know what I mean Kisame?" Kisame nodded.

"What method do you want me to use?" He asked.

"Do whatever you like, just bring me the damn Demon."

Kisame silently relived his conversation with the Leader. It seemed he wasn't about to get another chance with Itachi. But the weirdest thing was that, it wasn't the thing that was currently on his mind. The only thing occupied his mind right now was the thought of the black haired, red eyes Uchiha boy.

No matter what he did or where he was, after the incident with Itachi, he couldn't get him out of his mind. The boy's determination to go with him, his cold feature even when he was telling of his deep hatred toward the village and his father, his deep trust toward the person who came for him, his unwavering resolve to let go of him when he did make his decision to go with the white hair copy nin. Everything about him interested Kisame in the ways no one ever did.

'How would he turn out to be when he grows up, I wonder?' He thought as he got to his usual hiding place from where he could see Itachi's room.

Itachi knew he would call on Kabuto sooner or later. It was already one month after his visit to Naruto's house. And while he didn't want to admit it, the only thing which kept him from asking Kabuto to take his place up till now was that he wanted to test and see how much Hokage will respect his wish for deciding on the time of leaving the house.

And this one month proved him that the Hokage actually took note of his request.

The other thing which stopped him from leaving was Kakashi who still hadn't come back from his six weeks mission. According to Itachi he should have been back last week, but it was already the seventh week and there was still no sign of the white haired jonin.

Itachi paced his room. Then a thought accrued to him, he could go out and ask Namikaze-sama about Kakashi, he was the Hokage, it was a given that he knew of Kkashi's whereabouts.

Now the only thing he needed to do was to ask for Kabuto. Which was fairly easy. He just needed to activate the demon's chakra mark on kabuto, and Kabuto would come to him immediately. That was what he told Itachi last time when he asked about how he could reach him. But he needed to be careful, because activating the chakra mark too much was actually painful and uncomfortable for Kabuto.

When he was finished, he got ready and waited for Kabuto's arrival. It took Kabuto thirty minutes to reach the Uchiha compound. When he was about to knock on Itachi's door, he opened the door and nodded to Kabuto to enter.

"Hello Kabuto-san. Thank you for coming." Itachi said.

"Hi, Itachi-kun. It was nothing. How may I help you? Did you finally decide to go out?" Kabuto said. Itachi could detect a smirk under his expressionless mask.

"Yes. Of course if you have the time to take my place."

"Sure, I must say you choose the best day to ask my replacement. I'm completely free these days." Kabuto said. "Can I stay in your room?"

"Yes. I will be back sooner this time." Itachi said and headed for the door.

"By all means take your time." Kabuto said.

Itachi just nodded and left the room. He silently left the house as to not stir any attention and consequently face any member of his family. When he was safely out of the house he jumped on the nearest roof and remained on the rooftops until he was out of the whole compound.

Now he needed to think of the place he wanted to go. He could go to Naruto's house but the Hokage probably wasn't home at this time of the day, and if he knew Naruto enough by now he wasn't there either. So he could go to Hokage tower which he heard about, on few occasion from Kakashi and not to mention that it was very easy to find between all the houses in Konoha.

He was on his way when he felt a presence following him. It was very faint and distinct, and Itachi thought that it might be his imagination, so he change his directions a few times but it seemed the presence was still there and it was definitely after him.

'Is it one of the Uchihas? I cannot feel his chakra.' Itachi thought, then seeing that he has no other alternative, Itachi jumped on the rooftops and started running as fast as he could, after running for twenty minutes nonstop. Itachi stood on one of the roofs and searched for the follower's chakra. It was nowhere to be found. Itachi let out a sigh of relief and looked around himself to see where he was.

When he looked down he saw a building with a lot of kid inside it. 'Could it be the academy Naruto-sama was talking about?' he thought, and silently jumped down, and then entered the place.

It was full of children of different age, boy and girl. They all seem to have fun, laughing and chasing after each other or sometime throwing a toy kunai at each other. But none of them seemed older than 14 or maybe 15 so Itachi could easily blend with them.

He was looking at a boy who was trying to climb a wall by gathering the chakra at his feet when somebody bumped into him. Itachi turned sharply and came face to face with the only person he didn't want to see as much as could.

"You?" Sasuke said. "What are you doing here? Does father…"

"Oi, bastard where do you think you're running off to?" Naruto shouted and came running toward the black haired Uchiha.

He came to a sudden stop when he saw Itachi standing face to face with Sasuke, looking as icy and cold as ever and Sasuke who looked both angry and surprised at the same time, their resemblance undeniable.

"Hey, Itachi. What are you doing here?" He came forth and patted Itachi on the back.

"Hey Bastard, this is the Uchiha I was talking about." Naruto said, grinning madly.

"You didn't say his name was Itachi." Sasuke almost spat Itachi's name.

"Ah, I didn't? It must've slipped my mind." Naruto said, then put his hand behind his head and laughed sheepishly. Then someone shout Sasuke's name and Itachi saw a cute pink haired girl threw herself at him.

"Dad told me not to tell your first name to people if I were to tell them about you." Naruto whispered into Itachi's ear. Itachi looked at Naruto surprised, 'So he can keep his mouth shut if he wants.' He thought.

Sasuke finally managed to get Sakura off him then he sharply turn toward Itachi. "We need to talk." He grabbed his hand and was about to pull him somewhere so no one hear their talk when Naruto suddenly caught Itachi's other arm.

"I don't think he wants to have a talk with you. He is here to see me." He looked at Itachi. "Aren't you Itachi?"

Itachi blink at Naruto. How could this seemingly idiot blond understand his discomfort at being taken away by Sasuke, not that he couldn't handle his younger brother.

"Hn." He said and nodded his head slowly. His bangs danced in front of his face slightly, and suddenly Itachi found himself face to face with the pink haired girl.

"Excuse me, but could you be Sasuke-kun's relative? You look a lot like him?" there was a bright blush on her face.

Itachi looked at Sasuke, and Sasuke suddenly was taken aback by the look in Itachi's face. 'What? Why does he look like he wants my permission to answer?' He thought.

"Yes, he is one of our distant relatives." Sasuke said distastefully.

"OH, really? He is so…" Sakura stopped and her face turned a crimson color.

Just then Naruto pulled Itachi's hand. "Let's go Itachi."

Itachi didn't ask where. He just followed Naruto. For some unknown reason he had a feeling that he could trust and rely on Naruto more than he initially thought. And this thought had a surprisingly calming feeling to it, the feeling that you can count on someone when you really needed him. It was the feeling that Itachi had only when he was with Kakashi.

Naruto led Itachi to an unoccupied place near a tree with a swing tied to it.

"You ok Itachi?" He was still holding his hand.

Itachi just nodded. He then raised his head and smiled reassuringly at Naruto. When Naruto saw Itachi's smile his own smile broaden all over his face, and he let go of Itachi's hand.

But then Sasuke walked in and broke their bright smiles. "Itachi you know you need to explain something. Now you can do it here right in front of this idiot or we can go somewhere else. It's either fine with me." Sasuke looked at Itachi with the look that said he wasn't kidding and he would tell everything in front of Naruto if don't comply.

"Fine…"

"Wait! Are you threatening Itachi?" Naruto came in front of Itachi. Itachi suddenly had a feeling that the same thing happened to him a few years back was about to happen again and he really didn't want a repetition of what happened back then.

"It's ok Naruto. I also want to speak with Sasuke." He put his hand on Naruto's shoulder and smiled at him.

Sasuke clenched his fist tightly. He didn't know why but he suddenly felt extremely jealous by Itachi's warm smile at Naruto, and the thing which shocked him more was that he didn't know if he was actually jealous of Itachi or of Naruto.

Naruto hesitantly nodded his head and left them alone while sending Sasuke a warning glare.

"So what are you doing here out of the house?" Sasuke folded his arms on his chest and said.

"That is not of your concern, ototo." Was Itachi's cold reply.

Sasuke gritted his teeth. "Does father know you are out?"

"Probably."

"Probably? You are going to come back home with me so we can confirm it with father." Sasuke said.

"What makes you think you can order me around?" Itachi said and titled his head a little.

"The fact that I can be out and you can't." Sasuke smirked.

"Still that fact does not have the power to order me around." Itachi was becoming irritated. Why was it also seemed like a repetition of that time?

Sasuke dropped his folded arms and clenched them more tightly than before, but before he could say anything Itachi added, "Look Sasuke, father knows about my leaving the house because Hokage-sama already talked to him on this matter. So let's just leave each other alone and just be some Uchiha's distant relatives on this few occasions when I come out of that house."

Sasuke felt Itachi's tenacity to solve the matter without further argument or dispute and it made him even angrier that Itachi was still keeping his cool despite all their history. 'Why is he still calm after all this? Why isn't he trying to fight me or something?' Sasuke wanted to retort, wanted to shout at Itachi he wanted to make a scene and let his anger and frustration from all the things happening in his family out on Itachi.

But then the bell rang indicating that their class was going to start. So he just closed his mouth and stalk off toward the building. When Sasuke left Itachi's side Naruto ran to him.

"Is everything ok?"

"You sound like a concern mother by keep repeating the same question about my well being." Itachi said, and was amused when he was greeted by Naruto's faint blush.

"Nah, it's just my parent keep telling me to be careful with you and don't let anything happen to you when you are with me." He looked sideway as if to avoid Itachi's eye.

Itachi took Naruto's hand out of the blue and Naruto looked at him startled.

"It is absolutely fine. Thanks for caring so much." Naruto was speechless for a second but then a head came out the window and shouted to him, "Naruto come to class and bring Shikamaru with you while you're at it."

"Ah, I almost forgot, hey Ita do you like to come to our class, if you like I'll introduce you to the other students and Iruka-sensei."

Itachi just 'hn'ed and went after Naruto.

"Now where is Shikimaru? He usually sleeps around here somewhere." Naruto looked around a big bush. "Ah, here he is, hey Shikimaru you lazy ass get up the class is starting."

Shikimaru yawned loudly and stretched his arms above his head. Itachi came closer to see this supposedly friend of Naruto, and then he felt the familiar chakra signature and he knew that now he have an even better excuse to visit Hokage-sama.

Itachi walked into the Hokage's tower, still a bit sad about parting from Naruto and his school. Itachi didn't go into his class and excused himself after Naruto introduce him to Shikamaru but he was sure he could have a good time with Naruto around.

Itachi looked around the place which wasn't that much decorated despite it being the Hokage's work place and tried to find Minato by his chakra, which wasn't that hard since Minato's flaring chakra that was very much like Naruto's was easily detectable. He reached a big wooden door and hesitated, he couldn't just barge into Hokage's office now, could he?

Just as Itachi was contemplating his ways to get inside without interrupting anything a shinobi with a senbon in his mouth came behind him.

"Do you need anything boy?" he looked Itachi up and down.

Itachi wanted to ignore the young man, but he didn't know the place and there was a possibility that this guy was someone important. "I need to speak with Hokage-sama." he said politely.

"And who might you be? What do you need to talk to Hokage-sama about?" Shinobi asked with a hint of amusement.

"May I require your name first?" Itachi said with his coldest tone.

"Sure," the man chuckled. "It's shiranui Genma."

"Is there a need for me to speak with you if I want to see the Hokage-sama, Shiranui-san?" Itachi asked. Genma wanted to accuse the boy for being impolite but there was nothing in Itachi's voice to show his disrespect, he was just merely asking a question and how does he manage it without being accusing was beyond Genma.

"Not necessarily, but I could give him a messege since I'm about to see him." Genma said cooly. It was Itachi's first time to encounter a person who had this kind of coolness and Itachi could clearly say that it was in his blood not some act.

"I'll be gratefull Shiranui-san." Itachi bowed his head slightly.

"And I tell Hokage-sama who wants to meet him?"

"Uchiha Itachi."

The senbon stopped moving in Genma's mouth for a split second and then it continued its movement, but Itachi clearly saw the falter in the movement and knew that the man knows him to some extent.

"Wait here, be back soon." Genma gave Itachi a friendly smile and opened the doors to Hokage's working place.

Itachi didn't move from his place but then he didn't need to because as soon as Genma went in, the doors burst open again and Hokage walked out with his arms wide open.

'He is going to hug me.' Itachi thought, and his thoughts were indeed right. But Minato stopped himself before he reached the boy and instead put his hands on Itachi's shoulders.

'What is he so happy about?' Itachi thought suspiciously, while he really didn't want to suspect Namikaze for anything.

"Itachi you are finally out." Minato said with extreme joy. 'Ah, so that's it.' Itachi almost sighed in relief when he found out the reason behind Hokage's enthusiasm.

"Thanks to you Hokage-sama." Itachi said and bowed.

"Nah, don't think about it, now Genma-san said you wanted to talk to me." When Itachi gave the Namikaze his confirmation Minato put his arm around him and ushered him inside.

When they entered Itachi didn't see the senbon gnawing ninja anywhere.

Hokage seated and gesture to Itachi to start.

"I found out who the other two seals are."

xXx

TBC…

Another chapter finished and I thought it would be a good idea to have an early update after the late update on the last chapter.

Review of the nest chapii: "A mission to the village of mist? With all due respect I do not have the necessary experience to take a mission."

"That's exactly why I'm sending a jonin and an experienced ninja with you."

Chii out.